Female empowerment films have become more prevalent over the past few decades. Women are standing up for what they believe in and what they feel they deserve regarding work and relationships. The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed may have set this back a little way. Joanna Arnow’s directorial debut puts her in control of everything from writing the script to starring in her movie, but the subject matter didn’t do her any favors.

Ann (Joanna Arnow) works in corporate America for some kind of nondescript company, but when she’s not at work she is involved in BDSM relationships. She likes to be submissive to men and have them degrade her and treat her badly. She seems to get some kind of enjoyment out of this, but for the life of me, I don’t know why.  Not until she gets into a real meaningful relationship with Chris (Babak Tafti) does she realize the kind of relationship she can truly have with a man.

As the director, writer, editor, and star Arnow controls the narrative of this film. She has decided to separate the story into five segments and all the segments are named after the men who are her masters per se. Allen (Scott Cohen) is the first master and he is a little bit tamer than others, but he seems to not be into Arnow’s character that much. He says he doesn’t want her to talk at one point. I felt he and the other characters that play the masters are disrespectful of Arnow’s character. That’s the point of BDSM I guess. I just don’t know why she would be disrespectful of herself by allowing this treatment.  She deserves better as a character.

Arnow is in every scene of the movie and about fifty percent  of the time she is naked. She is a beautiful woman who deserves a better film to be in. Even though this is her idea she could have done something better than this. It shows she’s bored in her life. Even when she takes time off to spend with her parents nothing is going on. I understand the need for sexual stimulation, but not the way she chose to do it. It’s degrading of herself as a woman and sets back women’s rights for decades.

I was genuinely intrigued by where this story was going and when it finally started going in a direction I liked it reverted back to a demeaning aspect once again. I know men have been mistreating women for hundreds of years, but when you have a guy in the story who genuinely cares, why treat him badly in turn? The Chris character was a good guy and the story makes him out to be dumb. He should have stood his ground and fought to be the man in this woman’s life, not some BDSM guy. He deserved better in the relationship. I felt bad for him for what she made him feel about their relationship. 

Along with the title and some other things like that packaged for the main character eats there are some laughs to be had in this film. The quirky weirdness of the character and story made it funny at times. It was at the expense of the bad treatment of the main character most of the time. Why do we as an audience need to laugh at her weirdness and being submissive in a pink bikini outfit, ball gag, pig nose, and bunny ears? It’s not right! I’m not saying a serious film about this stuff is right either. I just had a hard time laughing at this woman’s plight. Even though she chose it.

The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed is the perfect title for the movie. In the movie, it refers to a song, but that’s not here nor there. It just says why should this woman care about herself? Why not be submissive to these men who are looking for some gratification about treating women badly? Because they have a problem with themselves. Arnow’s character deserved better. As a filmmaker, she’s not bad. I just thought she should have made something better for women than this story. Women have come a long way and this isn’t something that they should be represented by. Women deserve better. I just couldn’t enjoy this movie as much as I wanted to the more I thought about it. Hopefully, Arnow will do something a little more upbeat and cheerful next time.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen